Pages

Saturday, September 23, 2017

Ah, Modern Times (a Ten Things of Thankful Post)

We live in such a tech heavy world now that sometimes i feel it's a mixed blessing. These modern inconveniences, well, as inconvenient as they may be i cannot live without them.

The modern inconvenience of phones never ceases to amaze me. They ring when you least want them to, and it's often a scammer ignoring the Do Not Call list. Even when my children won't answer my calls, however, i am thankful to know if they really need to get in touch with me for an emergency situation, they can do so.

Cars really are a modern inconvenience. Without them we'd have to work within walking distance of our homes, like people did in the old days. As in, usually, out in the fields of their own farms. Being able to drive to a workplace farther than you can easily walk has opened new worlds and made mechanics very busy and very happy. Even when i am in a hurry and no one in front of me wants to look up from the phone and drive when the light turns green, i am grateful for The Jalopy and Lunceford the Land Yacht that get me where i need to be.

Air conditioners are a modern inconvenience in their cost to operate. Even so, i would not want to live without them, and i'm especially thankful for them when it's so hot out that our car seat belt buckles can double as branding irons.

TV is a modern inconvenience of the highest order in its ability to distract us 24/7 from whatever it is we need to be doing. Even though i don't have one any more, i'm grateful it exists to entertain and sometimes (depending on the station) inform and enlighten. Also when the children were young, i'd never have gotten to sit down during the day if i hadn't been able to get them to watch a short Disney movie on VHS every day.

GPS is a marvel of modern inconvenience in its ability to get people lost. Yesterday it got me to a place i'd never been, and back home, and only had me turned around once, so i'm thankful it exists and works most of the time.

Alarm clocks, the modern inconvenience you love to hate, even as you are grateful to be at work on time.

Elevators are the modern inconvenience that made skyscrapers possible, because who doesn't want to live and work way up in the air in a big city? Still, every time i don't have to climb several flights of stairs, i am thankful for elevators, and Mr. Otis, who didn't invent them but made them practical and useful.

Radio is my modern inconvenience of choice when it comes to entertainment and i am very thankful for it most of the time. Annoying when tuned to certain genres and played at an alarmingly high volume in the car that just passed, it is very soothing when used as background sound and gives me just enough news to keep me informed without being overwhelmed.

Microwave ovens very modernly and inconveniently make it possible for us to live off of not quite real food that has been possibly rendered unsafe by the very means used to warm it up. Will i give up my microwave? No way! My gratitude for being able to cook things very quickly when i get home and i'm tired, or let the others in the house cook for themselves, knows no bounds.

Finally, the biggest modern inconvenience we all know and love, computers. While i wait for what studies have shown is an average of two seconds for a web page to open, listening to half a song on the radio and washing three dishes during that two seconds, i am often struck by how much more i can get done now in two seconds than ever before. Really, though, without these marvels, we couldn't do what i'm doing now, reaching across miles to interact with people from all ages and stages and walks of life all over the globe. As much as i sometimes want to whack the screen with something when it's not cooperating, i am very thankful for the people i have in my life now that i would never have met without computers and the internet.

Are you thankful for a modern inconvenience or two that make your life better and cause trouble at the same time? Let us know, or write up any list of things for which you are thankful and link up at Ten Things of Thankful. We'd love to have you.

Augustalia -- Roman Empire (birthday of Caesar Augustus, still the traditional New Year's Day in Constantinople and in the Eastern Orthodox Church)

Bunster Winding -- Fairy Calendar

Checkers Day/Dogs in Politics Day -- thanks to Mr. Nixon; and i'm tempted to further comment, but this one is too easy

Citua -- Ancient Inca Empire (feast to the Moon, and to banish disease, in the month of Coyaraimi, date approximate)

El Grito de Lares -- Lares, Puerto Rico (anniversary of the first uprising against Spanish rule in 1868)

Fall Migration Festival -- Wetlands Institute, Stone Harbor, NJ, US (nature photography workshops, guided viewing of the abundant and diverse species here at this time, and more; through tomorrow)

Feast of the Ingathering -- UK traditional (also called Harvest Home; in Scotland, Kirn; in northern England, Mell-Supper. Celebrations will be held in rural areas for the next few weekends, celebrating the end of the harvest.)

Fish Amnesty Day (same as National Hunting and Fishing Day in the US, because it hurts fish to be caught!)

Your list of modern inconveniences shows a whole different life of what it was before their invention, we don't realize how good we have it now. Nice job I enjoyed reading this very much on my modern inconvenience Kindle Fire HD that stores a whole library for me to read and also doubles as a computer.

excellent TToT, M!(I drive my car a lot in the course of the work day and the part of New England where I am is mostly rural with some small towns. Sometimes, if I'm head back to the office from a rural area, I'll stop the car, turn it off and walk away and stand in the road, my back to the car and try to imagine if it was the 1700s Boy! If I had to walk instead of drive! It would take like, days! lol probably weren't too many real estate brokers back in the 1700s anyway lol

This was an awesome list of thankfuls, Mimi! I found myself nodding in agreement with every one of them, some we have so easily taken for granted over the years... like alarm clocks and microwave ovens! I remember my Dad getting our first one and Mom refusing to use it for quite some time, but she caught on. :-) Your perspective is accurate... though sometimes annoying, we would hate to give them up. My smartphone probably tops that list, Papa Bear and I marvel daily at all the capabilities and access packed into that little palm sized device. AC is another blessing I'm not sure how we ever survived without. I have mixed feelings about tv and would gladly give mine away most days, but Papa Bear loves it, so it shall remain...but on only when he is home.:-) Thank you for reminding us how blessed we are with all of these conveniences that make our daily lives easier... and have introduced us all to each other... that's the best one of all! :-)